How to effectively utilize social media

Social media is a very big part of marketing these days, it’s free to use and highly effective in reaching out to new people when done correctly. It’s no good having thousands of followers and not engaging with them, that’s the problem a lot of businesses face with social media.

A frequently asked question is how you can effectively use social media channels to promote your business and reach out to new customers. The answer is engaging with the audience. Engagement is key, and there are many ways in which you can do this, below is a list of some of the most effective ways.

1. Start A Conversation/Debate With The Audience Starting a conversation with the audience is a great way to engage with people as you are getting them to talk about whatever it is you want them to. Also, on Facebook, if somebody comments on your post, your post will then automatically repost on that person’s timeline for all of their friends to see, which boosts your views and reaches new people. It can be as simple as asking a question that entices the reader to give their opinion, for example, you could ask “what is your favourite flavour ice cream?”, this will work wonders for getting more people to see your posts.

2. Promote Customer Content and Engaging Back with The Audience Promoting and reposting customers content is a great way to engage with your following. Asking your followers to tag/mention (@) you on their posts is a great way to do this, also by doing this, your followers are broadcasting your account to all of their friends. Furthermore, you can create hashtags (#) for you and your followers to keep up to date, by doing this you can then look at the hashtag and comment on your followers posts who use your hashtag. This is a highly effective way to keep in touch with your online customers and let them feel as though they mean something to your business.

3. Posting Videos Videos that are posted online tend to have a better engagement rate than photos, they are shared and commented on more. You might be wondering what videos can I post that will interact with my audience, well here are a few ideas that you yourself can incorporate into your social media. Some ideas for video posts are tutorials, interviews, FAQs, testimonials, behind-the-scenes and how-to videos. Remember to keep the videos short as a long video will bore the viewer, try to keep your videos between 30 seconds and 2 minutes in duration. Finally, post the video with a creative comment that will entice the audience to view and share the video.

4. Question & Answers Another great way to interact with your audience is by hosting Q&A sessions. Asking your audience to ask you questions for you to answer, it’s simple and very effective. Make sure to promote the Q&A before so that you have enough questions to answer, you can post the Q&A video online or even go Live.

5. Post Frequently It is very important to post frequently, I recommend posting between 1-4 times a week on each profile you have. Frequency is key, and knowing when to post is just as important. You need to post at optimal times so that you get the most views on your post. It is very important to know that primetime for social media is between 12 pm and 4 pm, this is the best time to post as more people are online.

To sum up, engagement is very important when using social media. You must post and engage with the audience frequently and regularly, try to post every day at optimal times to have the greatest benefits and gain a good following that enjoys the content you post.